Washington, D.C. - The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR),
through information recorded by the Special Follow-Up Mechanism for Nicaragua (MESENI)
in recent weeks, observes an increase in acts of violence and repression to
deter public demonstrations in Nicaragua. The IACHR also warns about the
detention and criminalization of political and social leaders. It also expresses
concern about the particular effects that the crisis generates on the rights of
women, children and adolescents.

In the context of the events that have taken place since April 18, the
Commission updates the death toll to 325, of which 21 are police officers
and 24 are children and adolescents. In view of the inconsistency of the
figures provided by the Nicaraguan authorities and their questioning of the
registry of deaths reported by the IACHR, the Commission reiterates to the
State of Nicaragua the urgent need to guarantee access to detailed
information on all the people who have died in the context of the situation
the country is going through, so that the IACHR can compare and verify the
figure with the data provided by the state authorities.

Social protest and criminalization

As part of its monitoring activities, the MESENI has recorded a number of
serious events aimed at dissuading the population from publicly
demonstrating in protests and criminalizing social protest in Nicaragua.

In this sense, the IACHR was made aware of National Police press release
number 115-2018 of September 28, which qualifies public protest
demonstrations as illegal for the sole reason that they have produced
specific violent acts and holds those who have called and organized them
legally responsible. In this sense, the IACHR and its Special Rapporteur for
Freedom of Expression (RELE) expressed their extreme concern about the
position of the Nicaraguan National Police, which declares the protest
demonstrations illegal and holds its conveners criminally responsible.

On October 13, a new note from the National Police (116-2018) established
that any mobilization in any part of the country must take place once the
organizers have requested the corresponding permit from the police
authorities and it has been granted. In this sense, he reiterated that he
would not allow "any action that violates the right of Nicaraguan families
to Peace and Life and recalls that any provocative, instigating and violent
activity will be punished according to the Political Constitution and Laws
of Nicaragua.

On October 14, MESENI learned of the repression of the initial group of
participants in the "United for Freedom" march led by the Blue and White
National Unity (UNAB). As noted, the convening group was surrounded by a
large deployment of riot police and the National Police. On Sunday, October
14, MESENI witnessed strong repression and a significant number of arrests
in the context of marches called by civil society organizations. In this
regard, the IACHR calls on the State to immediately cease the repression of
demonstrators and the arbitrary detention of those who participate in the
protests, as well as to guarantee the safety of people in the context of
public demonstrations.

Through an official communiqué, the National Police reported the
detention of 38 people for being "involved in instigating and provocative
activities that violate the right of Nicaraguan families to move around
freely and to carry out their economic, commercial, religious, sports and
recreational activities normally. For its part, MESENI recorded the
detention of at least 50 people. Some of them, mostly journalists, were
released on the spot. The rest were transferred and, in the course of the
same day, October 14, eight people were released. The rest were released the
next day. Among those detained were opposition leaders, journalists and
human rights defenders such as Suyen Barahona, Ana Margarita Vigil,
Francisco Ortega and José Antonio Peraza, among others.

In particular, the IACHR expressed concern about the detention of Haydée
Castillo, a human rights defender who was a beneficiary of IACHR
precautionary measures, detained at the Augusto C. Sandino International
Airport when she intended to travel to participate in an activity organized
by the IACHR; as well as the detention of Allan de Jesús Cordero Ocón, a
Costa Rican national, who was deprived of liberty along with his wife,
Marcela M. Guzmán.

The IACHR strongly condemns any type of impediment imposed on a person to
exercise their right to use the mechanisms available in the inter-American
system for the protection of human rights, or any type of reprisal or
stigmatization undertaken by a State motivated by the participation or
action of individuals or organizations before the organs of the
inter-American system, in the exercise of their conventional rights.

The IACHR has observed with concern the persistence of the use of
detention as a form of repression of social protest, as well as the
criminalization of persons who participated in the various forms of peaceful
demonstration against the Government of Nicaragua since April.

Examples of these situations are the records of the Mesoamerican
Initiative of Women Human Rights Defenders, according to which on August 24
and 25 more than 50 arbitrary detentions were carried out, of which more
than half corresponded to students who are members of the Coordinadora
Universitaria por la Justicia y la Democracia (CUJD), an organization that
participates in the National Dialogue Table. According to public
information, twenty members of the CUJD were detained at a checkpoint on
August 25 while on their way to participate in a demonstration to be held in
Granada. According to the testimonies received by the Mechanism, agents of
the National Police allegedly transferred the women and children to the
police station. On August 25, in León, university leaders Byron Corea
Estrada, Christopher Nahirobi Olivas, Yaritza Rostrán Mairena, Luis Arnulfo
Hernández, Levis Josué Artola, Juan Pablo Alvarado and Victoria Obando,
transgender woman and LGBTI rights activist, were arrested while
participating in a demonstration. Days later, the young men and women were
charged by the National Police with homicide, arson, kidnapping, robbery
with intimidation, death threats and terrorism. According to information
received by MESENI, the hearings in which these charges were formalized were
not public, according to the pattern already recorded by the IACHR.

On September 4, Arianna Moraga, Edwin Carcache, Grecia Rivera, Alejandro
Centeno, Judith Mairena, and Iskra Malespín, some of them with precautionary
measures granted in their favor, were arrested near the Carretera Sur, in
the city of Managua, without being informed of the reasons for their
detention. The women were released hours later; Alejandro Centeno remained
in detention until Friday, September 6; and Edwin Carcache was presented by
the National Police as responsible for the assault, destruction, and burning
of a police patrol, among other crimes.

The IACHR also learned of the charge of terrorism against retired Major
Tomás Maldonado, after being detained for more than twenty days without
access to a lawyer. On August 30, Carlos Brenes, also a retired military
officer, was allegedly accused of committing the crime of terrorism. On
September 7, Francisco Sequeira and Lenin Salablanca - who participated in
blockades that took place in the department of Juigalpa-Chontales - were
presented by the National Police as members of a terrorist group. Mr.
Salablanca spent more than twenty days in prison without being charged.

In this regard, the IACHR reiterates that a detention is arbitrary and
illegal when it is practiced regardless of the motives and in the cases
established by law and when it is executed without the observance of all
procedural formalities by the judicial and police authorities. In this
regard, Commissioner Joel Hernández, Rapporteur for the Rights of Persons
Deprived of Liberty, indicated that "all detentions made previously, during
or immediately after situations of social protest and demonstrations, must
comply unrestrictedly with the principles and standards enshrined in
international human rights law.”

The IACHR also noted new acts of violence in the context of protest
demonstrations in Nicaragua. On September 2, during the "March of the
Flags," doctor Carlos Fletes was injured by a firearm fired from a truck
that was transporting people wearing pro-government emblems. According to
public information, the vehicle from which the shot was fired was guarded,
after the attack on the march, in the facilities of District V of Managua's
mayor's office. During the demonstration, the National Police also reported
on the assault and burning of a patrol by "hooded subjects". National Police
officer Melvin Antonio Romero Moraga and Deputy Inspector Harling José
Echaverry Salazar were injured in the attack. The IACHR condemns violent
acts that exceed peaceful protest and urges demonstrators to refrain from
using violence in protests.

The expulsion from the country of the Austrian-American documentary
filmmaker and journalist Carl David Goette-Luciak, on October 1st, without
having been charged with any charge, and for information to which MESENI had
access, due to publications of his authorship in which he denounces the
Government, is also cause for concern. With respect to these facts, the
Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Edison Lanza, has pointed out that
"even in administrative or migratory contexts, the sanctions against people
for issuing information or opinions are subject to the limitations of
respect for freedom of expression, which must be guaranteed without regard
to the nationality of the people who exercise it", for which reason the
State must refrain from expelling foreigners from the country due to the use
of their freedom of expression.

On these facts, IACHR Rapporteur for Nicaragua Antonia Urrejola indicated
that "the State must investigate all acts of violence committed in the
context of protests and demonstrations, impartially and with due diligence,
and guarantee the rights to peaceful assembly and freedom of expression.

On the other hand, the IACHR has observed the persistence of actions
tending to impede the development of social protest through harassment
tactics, carried out by a broad deployment of pro-government groups that are
sometimes armed and agents of the National Police stationed on the routes
and places where demonstrations, marches and sit-ins take place. This
situation would have made it necessary, on several occasions, to suspend
protest actions or change the course of the mobilizations. On August 27, in
León, a demonstration demanding the release of the detained students was
suspended due to the convocation of a countermarch for the same time and
place. On August 28, demonstrators participating in a sit-in demanding the
release of students also detained in León, were attacked by pro-government
groups. On September 4, in Ticuantepe, members of the Sandinista Youth
allegedly blocked the passage of a march organized in support of female
teachers who had been arbitrarily dismissed. On September 9, pro-government
groups reportedly fired firearms and attacked demonstrators in Jalapa, Nueva
Segovia, injuring at least two people. On September 9, demonstrations were
cancelled in Carazo, León and Rivas due to the strong presence of
pro-government groups and agents of the National Police.

In this regard, Commissioner Francisco Eguiguren, Rapporteur on Human
Rights Defenders, recalled that "social protest can become the only means
that allows sectors of the population and groups that are discriminated
against or marginalized from public debate to make their social demands and
demands heard. In this sense, "the State of Nicaragua must adopt all
necessary measures to guarantee the free exercise of the right of assembly
and freedom of association, as well as cease the criminalization of
activists and student and social leaders because, for the leading role they
occupy, can have the effect of discouraging the exercise of social protest,"
he added.

Likewise, the IACHR notes with concern the aggressions and acts of
harassment committed against members of the Catholic Church in Nicaragua. On
3 September, the bishop of the Diocese of Matagalpa, Rolando Álvarez, was
insulted and harassed by pro-government groups at a police checkpoint in the
presence of State agents. On 9 September, pro-government elements broke into
the church of La Merced in Granada, insulting and threatening the priest who
officiated at the mass. On the same date, the priest Edwin Román Calderón,
beneficiary of precautionary measures No. 660-18, was assaulted and harassed
by government sympathizers in the vicinity of the church of San Miguel, in
Masaya. The IACHR points out that, since the beginning of the protests in
the country, members of the Catholic Church have suffered a campaign of
stigmatization for their efforts to protect the integrity of the
demonstrators and for their role in the National Dialogue. The IACHR calls
on the State of Nicaragua to guarantee and protect the integrity not only of
Catholic authorities and parishioners, but of all people.

Women's rights

On the other hand, the IACHR has observed the differentiated effects that
this crisis has on women's rights. MESENI has taken note with great concern
of reports of cases of sexual violence against women and even acts of rape
in the context of repression, and continues to monitor precedents on other
possible cases and patterns of violence against women. MESENI has also
documented situations of harassment by state authorities against mothers of
detainees; based on discriminatory stereotypes based on their gender, these
women would be being held responsible for violence against their children by
"not having taken care of their education". In addition, MESENI collected
information on smear campaigns, harassment and threats against women
demonstrators and women human rights defenders, challenging stereotypes
traditionally assimilated to their gender. These aggressions extend to their
sons, daughters and their family nucleus.

Some of the women defenders who have publicly denounced having been
victims of these acts were Azahálea Solís, feminist lawyer and defender of
women's rights; Mónica López Baltodano, lawyer and advisor of the University
Coordination for Democracy and Justice (CUDJ); Sandra Ramos, Executive
Director of the Women's Movement "María Elena Cuadra"; and Haydee Castillo,
director of the Segovias Leadership Institute, arrested on October 14 and
identified in a video as responsible for acts of terrorism and murder. All
are beneficiaries of precautionary measures granted by the Commission.

The Commission recalls that the State of Nicaragua, by virtue of its
international commitments and the provisions contained in the Convention of
Belém do Para, has the obligation to prevent, investigate and punish all
acts of violence against women in a serious and diligent manner. In
particular, the Nicaraguan State has the obligation to act with due
diligence to prevent, punish and eradicate all acts of violence and
discrimination against women human rights defenders. In this regard,
Commissioner Margarette May Macaulay, President of the IACHR and Rapporteur
on Women's Rights, stated that "Nicaragua must take into account that in the
case of women human rights defenders, the inherent risk involved in their
work is compounded by the history of structural discrimination they have
suffered because of their gender, which determines that in some contexts
they are exposed to an increased risk of suffering acts of violence,
threats, harassment and other violations of their right to live a life free
of violence.”

The IACHR also recalls that States must publicly recognize the
fundamental role played by women human rights defenders in ensuring the
development of democracy and the rule of law in society and adopt the
necessary measures to prevent acts of violence against them. Furthermore,
the Commission recalls that States should incorporate a differentiated
approach in the protection, investigation, prosecution, punishment and
reparation of all cases of violence against women, including gender and
ethno-racial perspectives.

Children and adolescents

The number of 24 children or adolescents killed in the context of
protests in the country is extremely serious and reflects the fact that
there is no consideration for appropriate standards in the treatment and
care of these people in protest contexts. On Sunday 23 September,
16-year-old Matt Andrés Romero, a teenager, died of a gunshot wound as part
of the violence that occurred during the march "We are the Voice of
Political Prisoners".

Indeed, children and adolescents represent a group particularly affected
by the various forms of repression and criminalization in Nicaragua. Among
the negative impacts on children, civil society organizations denounce
actions of political indoctrination in some public schools; alteration of
school schedules and calendars as a consequence of the crisis; school
desertion due to the increase in child labor, due to economic difficulties
that particularly affect displaced families and force some children and
adolescents to take care of their lands, in order to prevent them from being
taken. Similarly, children and adolescents have had their rights to rest,
leisure, play and culture affected by the presence of armed agents in
communities and public spaces.

In this regard, Commissioner Esmeralda Arosemena de Troitiño, Rapporteur
on the Rights of the Child, stated that "it is essential that the
institutions responsible for the promotion, protection and defence of the
rights of children and adolescents in Nicaragua act in a timely and
comprehensive manner to guarantee children and adolescents an environment
free of violence, especially in the school and community environment". In
order for this context to take place, it considered it "indispensable to
guarantee articulation with all the actors involved, including the voices of
civil society and the opinions of children and adolescents".

On the other hand, the Commission notes with concern the reports of cases
of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment committed by State security agents
against children and adolescents. On 23 August, a teenager was reportedly
detained by the National Police on his way to school for questioning. When
he refused, one of the officers would have drawn his gun and pointed it at
him, while another took him by the arm to take him to the police station,
where the initials FSLN on the inside of his left arm would have been marked
with a syringe needle. MESENI recorded detentions in detention centers where
adults are deprived of their liberty, in some cases with long periods of
detention of adolescents without charges. With respect to these facts, the
IACHR calls on the State of Nicaragua to initiate an immediate
investigation, with due diligence, to identify those responsible for these
detentions in each case. Likewise, the IACHR urges Nicaragua to implement
all necessary measures to prevent the violation of the rights of children
and adolescents.

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Within the framework of its training activities, MESENI in the
field organized three training workshops, reaching the number of 77
persons trained. On August 29, a workshop on refuge and
international protection was given to more than 40 people, among
them activists, human rights defenders and human rights defenders.
On September 6 and 8, workshops were held on human trafficking,
international standards, and the monitoring and protection
mechanisms of the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human
Rights for women human rights promoters.

The IACHR calls on the State of Nicaragua to obtain official
information relevant to the monitoring and follow-up of the human
rights situation in the country in accordance with its international
obligations assumed voluntarily. Once again, the IACHR requests
information on persons detained and prosecuted, data on persons who
have died, as well as on investigations carried out to clarify the
facts that have occurred in the country in the context of the
protests that began last April. The IACHR reiterates its request for
access to the country's prisons as well as to the public agencies
pertinent to the follow-up and monitoring carried out by MESENI in
the field.

"Within the framework of the monitoring of the human rights
situation in the country and as part of the obligations assumed by
the State of Nicaragua as part of the Inter-American System of Human
Rights, it is essential to be authorized to have access to prisons
and other official bodies," said Executive Secretary Paulo Abrão. He
also pointed out that "one of the recommendations freely and
sovereignly accepted by the State within the framework of the report
issued by the IACHR after its visit refers to the opening to
international scrutiny, which must be effectively guaranteed to the
Commission and its Follow-up Mechanism through the timely response
of each and every one of the requests for information submitted to
the State.

A principal, autonomous body of the Organization of American States (OAS), the IACHR derives its mandate from the OAS Charter and the American Convention on Human Rights. The Inter-American Commission has a mandate to promote respect for and to defend human rights in the region and acts as a consultative body to the OAS in this area. The Commission is composed of seven independent members who are elected in an individual capacity by the OAS General Assembly and who do not represent their countries of origin or residence.